Student Profile: Warren Lee
When Warren Lee applied to the Organic Growers School’s year long farmer training, Farm Beginnings®, they spoke about the pull and draw of their family land in Roswell, Georgia as a motivating factor. It was their great grandfather’s land and had been passed down in the family. Farm Beginnings® is a 12-month training that uses a mix of farmer-led classroom sessions, on-farm tours, mentorship, and field days. Warren had been pursuing their farm dream in the Northeast, including work on a farm in VT, a permaculture design course certificate, and a Masters in Ecological Design.

I recently read “Divorce: Thinking Financially, Not Emotionally,” by Jeffrey A. Landers. Talking with women going through divorce over the past few years has convinced me that acting in concert with that title is a significant challenge. A huge range of emotions—shock, anger, disappointment, guilt—complicate decision making during divorce. It is a good idea to talk with your attorney or financial planner to have a third party that is not so “involved” in the emotional aspect of the situation.

Despite these challenges, I’ve seen women make some smart choices over the past few years since I became a CDFA (Certified Divorce Financial Analyst). I’ll share them here.

This is what I’ve been looking for as I thought our NC Supreme Court could still challenge our gerrymandered state. They did it in Pennsylvania, so hopefully we can do it here. Read below….I’ve bolded and underlined the hope for NC.

City issues call for artists for River Arts District public art project

The City is continuing to implement the River Arts District (RAD) Public Art Plan.

The City of Asheville and the Public Art and Cultural Commission (PACC) seek qualified artists to submit Letters of Interest in becoming one of three artists asked to submit proposals for a project called Playful Art. When complete, Playful Art will provide an interactive and playful experiential installation for all ages.

From this call for artists, the review committee will choose the top three most qualified artists for this project. Those qualified artists will each be provided with a $250 honorarium to develop two project proposals to include a sketch and narrative for a work of art inspired by the theme of “playful art.” The committee is especially interested in work that highlights the location in the River Arts District as well as accessibility, creativity, play, engagement for all ages, and experience. The work could be a sculpture, earth work, or other appropriate and engaging piece to be installed in a park-like setting along the French Broad River East Greenway. It will be visible from public streets and pedestrian walkways, free of any admission fee.

Funding for this project comes from the City’s 1% for Public Art commitment. To learn more and/or to stay up-to-date with the River Arts District Public Art projects, please visit ashevillenc.gov/publicart or click here.

For more information, please contact Stephanie Monson Dahl, Public Art Program Administrator, at smonson@ashevillenc.gov or 828-337-4111.

Interested in local energy and climate issues? Come to the City of Asheville’s Climate Resource Guide release and Renewable Energy Initiative community update.

Set for 5 to 7 p.m. June 19 at The Collider, 1 Haywood St., Fourth Floor, the City’s Office of Sustainability and the Sustainability Advisory Committee on Energy and the Environment (SACEE) will share information on how — as a community and individually — we can become better prepared and more resilient to the effects of climate change. The event will feature the release of “Building a Climate-Resilient Asheville — Personal Action Guide.”

Asheville has a history of climate-related impacts — major floods in 1916 and 2004, landslides, nuisance flooding, wildfires, and the record drought of 2007–2008, to name a few. The city is also facing other stressors, like pressures from population growth, increasing demand for city services, economic changes, land use issues, and the desire to preserve a sense of place. Click here to continue reading

Asheville was recognized during the 2019 N.C. GIS Conference in Winston-Salem. City Council officials received the award during their May 14 meeting.

GIS is a geographic information system used as a framework for gathering, managing and analyzing data.

The GIS team worked with the Equity & Inclusion office to map and record some of Asheville’s history around race. This included mapping out areas where red-lining and urban renewal occurred. They also crowd-sourced African American history, displacement and neighborhood change.

The City of Asheville is a member of the Government Alliance on Racial Equity (GARE) and is able to use its resources and network to continue learning and advancing racial equity goals in Asheville. “In order for transformation to occur, an understanding of our racialized history is required,” said Kimberlee Archie, Director of Equity and Inclusion for the City of Asheville. “There are specific past and current policies, procedures, practices, and budget decisions that result in disparate outcomes by race. A mapping tool such as this is critical for us to use for change to occur.” Click here to continue reading

Welcome toThe Kicker from Carolina Public Press, a North Carolina news show bringing you conversations with journalists, sources and newsmakers from across the state.

In this episode, Kicker host Peter Kent talks with Hannah Randall and Amy Sims of Manna FoodBank, which serves a 16-county region of Western North Carolina, about issues of food insecurity the region they serve.

May 30, 2019 (Morganton, NC) — The North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics (NCSSM) announces a major grant of $250,000 from the Burroughs Wellcome Fund (BWF). The grant will convey naming rights to be determined at the school’s new campus that will open in Morganton in 2021. BWF is the largest single contributor in the history of NCSSM with a cumulative total of nearly $3.2 million. This latest grant will help foster a cutting edge learning experience for students, as the school drives continuous educational innovation with a data-science influenced program that includes applied learning experiences with regional institutions and industries.

“Hope for bipartisan policy on the economy or any other topic depends on stopping the blame game, beginning to listen to each other, and rebuilding trust before working together to solve the problems that beset us,” Alice Rivlin wrote in 2018, encapsulating one of her consistent tenets. As the Brookings Institution community mourns the death of this extraordinary scholar and public servant, we look back at some highlights of her extraordinary career at Brookings. Learn more about the scope and impact of her life and career in this memorial piece.

A newly published study makes a strong link between a specific behavior set and future income.

We all worry, to some extent, about how financially successful we’ll be. But if you’re a parent, there’s an extension of that concern that gets talked about less often, which is the financial success of your children.

Margaret Atwood has an eerie prediction about the outcome of abortion restrictions, one that bears an uncanny resemblance to the dystopian future depicted in her hyper-relevant novel, The Handmaid’s Tale.

Speaking at New York City’s Book Con on Saturday, Atwood argued that when states obligate women into childbearing, they institute “a form of slavery,” Insider reported. State-mandated reproduction has two outcomes, she said: That women die, and that orphanages fill up.

Happy Father’s Day from The Representation Project! Fathers in the media are often portrayed in stereotypical and even insulting ways. Since the fathers that we see on screens send powerful messages about this important role, it’s helpful to reflect on how content producers choose to portray dads. Here are our picks for best and worst dad representations in entertainment media.

Last year, Center for Craft and the Asheville Area Chamber of Commerce partnered with Artspace, a nonprofit real estate developer that focuses on affordable housing, studio, and performance space for artists, to conduct a community-wide survey to assess the needs of area creatives – from individuals to cultural organizations and related businesses.

The landmark survey, taken by 1,265 individuals and 170 organizations, documents the immediate need for affordable spaces for makers, designers, and performers in Asheville. The study found that a majority of artists (86%) and arts organizations (78%) would be interested in renting space in a multi-use arts facility in Asheville, North Carolina (see the full survey results here). Click here to continue reading

A scientist’s double negative

Precision demands that scientists present it as a double negative. Last July’s deadly heatwave in Japan could not have happened without human influence on the climate.

To venture a lay approximation, this study is saying decades of fossil fuel burning killed a thousand Japanese people. And this week more died as temperatures broke new records.

In the burgeoning field of event attribution, this is one of the clearest results yet. Japan has robust historic weather data, unlike most poorer countries vulnerable to weather disaster. The link between global warming and extreme heat is more direct than, for example, with tornado clusters hitting the US. Continue reading

Many Southern Congress Members Vote Yes to the Equality Act, Underlining Strong Support for LGBTQ Equality in the South

Today the U.S. House of Representatives voted in favor of the Equality Act, federal legislation that would prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity in employment, housing, credit, education, public accommodations, federally funded programs, and jury service. It is the first time ever that the House of Representatives has passed a bill to extend nondiscrimination protections to LGBTQ people.

On June 22 and 23, 19 Appalachian Grown™ family farms will welcome visitors during ASAP’s highly anticipated annual Farm Tour. This fun and educational weekend offers the public a chance to experience firsthand how food is grown and raised in the mountains, sample farm-fresh products, and meet the community’s local producers.